Mod DB / TDM popularity buttons

[SiyahParsomen]

If you put dumb achievements ofcourse it'll be worst idea ever. Completing very challenging sneaking & ghosting achivements will be delicious at the end of the mission I believe. And it's a good way to let people know possiblities in darkmod.

[demagogue]

We already have the alert stats & stealth score, so people can already see if they successfully ghosted a mission. That has the same practical function of an achievement. The part I don't like about traditional achievements is the pop-up bubble and little chime or some leet list somewhere. It's ok for an arcadish game, but not an immersive sim.

 

If some mapper (say, you) wanted to script an achievement system for their own map, though, and even some gui page for it, that would be better. I think such a system would be pretty map-specific anyway.

[SeriousToni]

Aren't achievements only useful if it's a multiplayer game or a platform like steam, where everybody of your friends can see them?

 

I find them useless too

[Sotha]

Mappers can easily implement in-mission achievements with secret objectives.

 

I've done this in the past and I think it is a great way to reward the player for doing something 'extra.'

[MoroseTroll]

Still, what do you guys think about the Steam Greenlight? Would you use it to make TDM more popular?

 

As for achievements: I'd say, "never say never". If this feature, no matter how exactly you'd implement it (via SteamWorks or via your own on-line service), would help TDM become more popular, so why not? Of course, I'm not saying about stupid achievements like "kill 100 zombies" or "KO 8 guards" (wait, Thief 2 has this "achievement" ). But what about just automatically publish on-line the achievements TDM already have in the end of every mission?

Edited August 10, 2012 by MoroseTroll

[demagogue]

As long as there are no copyright problems. It might have to wait until after we're standalone anyway. It doesn't look geared towards mods.

[MoroseTroll]

I think, the sooner more people will know about TDM, the better. What copyright issues do you expect in case of some of TDM Team would start his work on the Steam Greenlight?

[Tels]

I think, the sooner more people will know about TDM, the better. What copyright issues do you expect in case of some of TDM Team would start his work on the Steam Greenlight?

 

As for copright issues, v1.07 is a full mod (and I am not sure how this would fare on Steam, it would require D3 etc.), while v1.08 is some sort of "almost-standalone". So v1.08 would still require on Doom 3. When we go standalone, it will be much simpler to throw TDM on Steam

 

That doesn't mean that we could not put v1.08 on Steam, but then, I am also not sure what the requirements from Valve are exactly. The "no copyright inssues" is quite vague.

 

Anyway, greenlight does not start until end of August, and v1.08 of TDM is not released yet (it will hopefuly soon).

 

So my advice would be to wait a little bit more, until September or so, then when Greenlight is released, and v1.08 is released, we might look at this again.

[MoroseTroll]

So my advice would be to wait a little bit more, until September or so, then when Greenlight is released, and v1.08 is released, we might look at this again.

Make sense.

[MoroseTroll]

In case if you guys would start to popularize TDM using the Steam Greenlight or somehing similar, what about a visual beauty as a tool? I mean you could make a lot of videos of the most visual beautyful TDM missions, even those in WIP. I know, TDM is not an Unreal 1 clone, but I'm sure that you would agree with me that almost all people likes everything beautiful (I mean eye candy). If it so, why not to use this trick? Say, if Johannes Burrock (Melan, Sotha, etc) would make a fly-by (a'la Unreal 1) of his nice looking (perhaps WIP) map, I think it would be nice. What do you think?

[RPGista]

Springheel has been making efforts into creating new gameplay videos to expose the fun features of the game. The biggest obstacle for new promo material like that seems to be simple lack of people - this is however something the literally anyone interested could help, as long as you have basic knowledge of video editting, a good pc and an eye for details. It would be interesting to see someone make some presentation sequences with full settings - I would do it myself if my laptop was any better.

[Tels]

In case if you guys would start to popularize TDM using the Steam Greenlight or somehing similar, what about a visual beauty as a tool? I mean you could make a lot of videos of the most visual beautyful TDM missions, even those in WIP. I know, TDM is not an Unreal 1 clone, but I'm sure that you would agree with me that almost all people likes everything beautiful (I mean eye candy). If it so, why not to use this trick? Say, if Johannes Burrock (Melan, Sotha, etc) would make a fly-by (a'la Unreal 1) of his nice looking (perhaps WIP) map, I think it would be nice. What do you think?

 

There is nothing that prevents anyone from making these videos. The TDM core team is way to busy to actually release v1.08

[MoroseTroll]

Well, I think that nobody but an author of the FM knows his creation as better as it possible .

[Sotha]

Well, I think that nobody but an author of the FM knows his creation as better as it possible .

 

Why on earth is the FM author the only person capable of making a video of the mission? Anyone can look at the mission and say "I like this scene" and then go and make a video.

 

If you want a fly-by of a mission, please, by all means:

1) download the mission

2) make a copy of it of you own personal editing purposes

3) use DR to make nurbs curve camera as per grayman's instructions (http://wiki.thedarkm...title=Cutscenes)

4) put in a lever that activates the nurbs curve and makes the cutscene flow.

5) capture a youtube video and upload it.

 

Team members and FMAs are doing a lot of work. The proposed video thing is something anybody can do with little dedication. With the regard of this, asking someone else to do it is not helpful at all. If you really want to help, go forth and do it yourself. TDM will do better if community would do something concrete to help out.

[MoroseTroll]

Hey, I'm not saying that the mappers are the only ones who can or should make such a videos, of course not . But, like I said, it is a mappers know their maps much better than an average player. Ergo, the best (but not the only one) candidate to make a fly-by video is an author of the map.

How much time, do you think, it would take for the average player to perform your to-do list? Hours? Days? How much probability that this average player will ever finish this simple (for a mapper) work? I'm sure, it much less 100%.

I know you guys are very busy: 1.08, The Campaign, etc. And will try to make a fly-by video by myself, but only after I complete my translation of ToSL, and cope with Tortoise .

[Sotha]

Heh.. Thanks for the clarification. Sure, the original author could do it more quickly, but wouldn't it be more happiness for everyone if someone else got involved with the mod through this kind of challenge. Why expect more work for guys who already have contributed a lot, when you could have someone fresh and motivated starting with small contributions?

 

My estimate would be that a person with average faculties (with little to no prior experience) could accomplish a fly-by youtube video based on DR in set nurbs curve flying camera with one weekend of pleasant paced, but motivated work. After that, the person would know the ins and outs of DR nurbs curve working, a little bit of scripting and the basics of cutscene creation.

 

After that learning process, he would be well equipped to create such videos very quickly, maybe in a single day. If he were motivated enough to learn sound shaders creation and getting them into game, he would could even routinely start a hobby of creating TDM movies with AI actors, likes the ones from skyrim seen in the other thread around here.

[Tels]

There are already people who do full "Let's Play TDM" videos on youtube (he, fen! , so this is already happening. However, for some reason somehow this is never as popular as any crappy video about someone running around in Minecraft, or any shooter and doing juvenile snarky remarks.

[MoroseTroll]

... but wouldn't it be more happiness for everyone if someone else got involved with the mod through this kind of challenge. Why expect more work for guys who already have contributed a lot, when you could have someone fresh and motivated starting with small contributions?

I totally agree with you, but, alas, many players are lazy enough (including me, mea culpa). Yes, it would be nice if some TDM player (not a mapper) will make such a video, but I think it doesn't matter who exactly will do it, because the main reason to create a fly-by videos is to attract as many TDM-unaware gamers as possible.

 

Tels: Many people like everything fashionable, but almost all of them like beautiful. I know, it is impossible to make TDM fashionable like Minecraft etc, but it is possible to show people how beautiful TDM can be.

[Springheel]

You don't even have to do a fancy nurbs-camera fly-through. The videos I've put together have just used actual gameplay.

[Professor Paul1290]

Sadly my current hardware isn't up to the task of running TDM and recording at the same time very well.

 

On the other hand, a few things have happened lately that might allow me to upgrade much sooner than I expected, though that depends on what happens in the next month or two. Here's hoping I guess.

[lost_soul]

You could probably record gameplay videos even on low end hardware. This could be done by

A: Recording an ingame demo of the gameplay similar to a doom/quake demo.

B. While doing this, record just the audio of your playing/commentary.

C: Use Doom 3 to export your recorded demo into an AVI and stich in your audio recording.

[RPGista]

Interesting, you can record video inside Doom?

[lost_soul]

Last I checked, there are two ways to "record".

A: "demo" mode, where the game records the movement of the pawns and entities in the game world and re-renders them in the game later. id games have been doing this for ages.

B: actually recording a movie file that doesn't require the game to play back.

Edited August 16, 2012 by lost_soul

[MoroseTroll]

Ok, Steam Greenlight is online. Has anyone some thoughts whether or not TDM should be popularized via this portal?

[Tels]

We should wait a bit longer for v1.08 to appear.

 

Also, there has some more progress lately into getting the mod standalone, but a lot of work remains. We could need help with that. A standalone "game" has much better chances to being accepted than a gamemod (with copyright issues).

 

Edit: However,we might consider adding it earlier:

 

[b]	Can I post my game concept or early builds?[/b]

Absolutely! We encourage you to post information about your game as early in the development process as you are comfortable with. Greenlight will let you define whether you are posting your game as a concept/early build or as a playable game that is nearing completion.
We ask that you only define your game as 'playable game' if you have a playable build that demonstrates the gameplay mechanics and at least one level of your game. Otherwise, please classify your submission as 'concept' until its far enough along that the community can reasonably evaluate the mechanics, scope, and style of your game. Either way, you will probably get great feedback and a good start in building a community of fans around your game.

 

Not only might we get more traffic, but also be "In game" before it is swamped.

 

However, I no longer have a steam account (or lost my details I think), so I am not sure who could add this game to steam.